Four Peaks - A Quad Ride

All pictures taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8.

On Saturday we got together with our friends and took a quad ride up and over the Four Peaks mountain range (Arizona). We followed the Mazatzal mountain range south to the El Oso Road.

We stopped at Jakes Corner store to, um, take care of some business before we went any further. By the way, there was a movie made there recently called “Jake’s Corner”. You can read about it here: http://www.jakescornerthemovie.com/. I haven’t seen the movie yet.

After leaving Jake’s Corner, I noticed that the moon was still out so I was trying to get shots as Robert was driving down the highway. This is not an easy task. When I was watching the images in the screen of my digital camera I noticed a cool angel figure in the clouds. It seems we were going to be watched over that day.

We got to our starting point around 8:30 that morning. We drove up El Oso Road about a mile or two and had an awesome view behind of us Roosevelt Lake. The sun was shining so brightly and the temperature was perfect.

The weather was so great that you could even see the fisherman in their boats out catching bass or crappie. What, you can’t see them??? Okay, fine, does this help???

Friday was our friend Francine’s birthday. We nicknamed her Paris since she’s always wearing pink on our rides. She’s a pretty special lady and a lot of fun to be around. Here is a shot of her and Ray posing in front of Roosevelt Lake. Happy Birthday, Francine!!!

Here is a shot of Four Peaks as seen from the Roosevelt Lake side. We aren’t actually going over the top of the peaks since that is wilderness. We are taking a road just to the right of them.

By the way, I used to work for the Forest Service on a trail/fire crew that maintained a trail on this side of Four Peaks, in the wilderness area. This is actually where Robert and I met over 20 years ago. This April will be our 20th wedding anniversary. Yay!

Okay, back to my story. During the trip we couldn’t resist picking up a few geocaches in the area.

This is Jeremy, he at least helps us find the geocaches.

This is Tiffany and Mike, they are permanently glued to the quad seat.

There were lots of beautiful canyons and scenery along the way. This area overlooks Canyon Lake. I've actually never been to Canyon Lake or Saquaro Lake. I'll have to change that soon.

These are awesome shots. You see all the smog in the distance? That’s Phoenix…and Mesa, and Scottsdale, and Chandler, and …. Well, you get the point. They’re all the same to me, one big city.

Here’s the deal. We give them our water rights ….

….and they give us their smog. Good trade, huh??? LOL.

Okay, I got sidetracked again, back to the story. We stopped to have lunch and stopped for one more quick geocache. See those big trees in the background? They are pure evil. These are the trees that nightmares are made of, you know the ones where the trees come to life and grab you, scratch you, hang you upside down by your toes. Yep, those trees!

Oh! I almost forgot the water shots. I always have to get water shots. That way if Arizona runs dry I’ve at least got pictures to look at.

Ha! I guess this qualifies as a "water shot". Almost every single one of them is on the bottle!!!!

Okay, it’s getting late and it’s time to start heading back. Here is Four Peaks from the Phoenix side. I like this side the best.

I TOLD you they were glued to the quad seat. Geesh! I just can’t believe these two. LOL.

Around 5 pm that evening we finally made it back to Roosevelt Lake and the quads. I'm done, I'm whooped.